'The Forgotten Cowboys'

Updated 8:22 AM ET, Thu November 15, 2012

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'The Forgotten Cowboys' – Jason Griffin (center) is one of the stars of "The Forgotten Cowboys," a documentary film by John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald which follows the lives of black cowboys in the U.S.

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'The Forgotten Cowboys' – For the last two years, Ferguson has been researching black cowboy history and filming modern cowboys on the ranch and at rodeos. He tells CNN about his experience.

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'The Forgotten Cowboys' – "The reason ... I am doing the project is because I want to raise ... awareness of the black cowboys," Ferguson says.

'The Forgotten Cowboys' – "I like the passion they have. Everything they really want is being cowboy. It's not a hobby, it's not them playing cowboys -- they are the cowboys," says Ferguson.

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'The Forgotten Cowboys' – "The more I look into it, the more amazed I am by the history of the black cowboys," says Ferguson.

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'The Forgotten Cowboys' – "This is Texas, so most of these people have grown up working with horses. Most of their fathers and grandfathers were cowboys. It goes back centuries, so it's not hobby for them, it's their life," says Ferguson.

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'The Forgotten Cowboys' – "They look after the cattle, the farms -- it's their work. Some of them are rodeo cowboys -- they are part-time cowboys -- but for others, it's the real job," says Ferguson.

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"The Forgotten Cowboys" – "They are very open community; anybody can come and see them. See their lives. They are not looking for publicity, it's their lives."

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"The Forgotten Cowboys" – "80 per cent of Americans do not know about the black cowboys. I just want to highlight the black cowboy story."

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"The Forgotten Cowboys" – "I think they just want to highlight that Black cowboys still exist. They want to highlight the memory of the black cowboys and keep the tradition alive." (All images are under the exclusive copyright property of the author John Ferguson and are not to be used without his written agreement.)